The present invention relates to communication cable termination systems and, more particularly, to optical fiber termination systems and methods for terminating the same.
In many telecommunications networks, some or even all of the network is a copper distribution network (i.e., includes use of copper wiring for tip and ring lines). This network generally is used to carry both Plane Old Telephone Service (POTS) and enhanced telecommunications signals, such as Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) signals, to subscriber locations 44 of such enhanced services and a central office 42. Metallic connectivity in such a network generally must be provided between whichever of the, typically, 200 block of subscriber locations of subscribers desiring the high speed xDSL service and a corresponding one of the, typically, 48 port xDSL port block. A problem may arise when this metallic connectivity is performed by additional jumpers inside an already congested cross connect box.
In typical installations, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the connectivity is achieved by intercepting an individual subscriber's POTS line (tip and ring) 52 to a corresponding subscriber location 44 at an existing POTS cross connect box or accessing a trunk line and providing a cross-connect box 30 for this purpose. As such, each of the in and out Tip and Ring pairs must be wired into the cross-connect box 30 from the central office cable 50 and the subscriber location cable 52 and jumpers 31 provided therebetween. The interception is generally achieved by disconnecting a subscriber's twisted pair jumper 31 between the F1 (Central Office (CO) 42 side) and the F2 (subscriber location 44 side) within the cross connect box 30.
As seen in FIG. 2, a new jumper 34 is then run from the F1 side to an alternate location in the cross connect box 30 to a separate connection field 20. This routes the subscriber's line from the old CO side through the DSL port in/out connection field 20 and hardwired tail 22 to the Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) 10, where the xDSL signal is injected onto the line. Then, a second jumper 32 is run from the xDSL output field to the F2 side of the cross connect 30, which further connects through the hardwired tail 24 via the connection field 20 to the DSLAM 10 output. This second jumper 32 connects the enhanced signal back onto the copper twisted pair running to the subscriber location 44. This approach may create problems with removing old jumpers, replacing them with new jumpers, routing of the new jumpers within the box, and lack of space for the new connection field for the DSLAM in and out ports. Note that the cross connect box may be an existing cross connect box, or a newly installed smaller cross connect box specifically installed as a part of upgrading a network to provision higher speed services.